summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation/technical/api-string-list.txt
blob: 293bb15d206e71f57e906b33ca27ee05e3429521 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
string-list API
===============
 
The string_list API offers a data structure and functions to handle sorted
and unsorted string lists.
 
The 'string_list' struct used to be called 'path_list', but was renamed
because it is not specific to paths.
 
The caller:
 
. Allocates and clears a `struct string_list` variable.
 
. Initializes the members. You might want to set the flag `strdup_strings`
  if the strings should be strdup()ed. For example, this is necessary
  when you add something like git_path("..."), since that function returns
  a static buffer that will change with the next call to git_path().
+
If you need something advanced, you can manually malloc() the `items`
member (you need this if you add things later) and you should set the
`nr` and `alloc` members in that case, too.
 
. Adds new items to the list, using `string_list_append` or
  `string_list_insert`.
 
. Can check if a string is in the list using `string_list_has_string` or
  `unsorted_string_list_has_string` and get it from the list using
  `string_list_lookup` for sorted lists.
 
. Can sort an unsorted list using `sort_string_list`.
 
. Finally it should free the list using `string_list_clear`.
 
Example:
 
----
struct string_list list;
int i;
 
memset(&list, 0, sizeof(struct string_list));
string_list_append("foo", &list);
string_list_append("bar", &list);
for (i = 0; i < list.nr; i++)
	printf("%s\n", list.items[i].string)
----
 
NOTE: It is more efficient to build an unsorted list and sort it
afterwards, instead of building a sorted list (`O(n log n)` instead of
`O(n^2)`).
+
However, if you use the list to check if a certain string was added
already, you should not do that (using unsorted_string_list_has_string()),
because the complexity would be quadratic again (but with a worse factor).
 
Functions
---------
 
* General ones (works with sorted and unsorted lists as well)
 
`print_string_list`::
 
	Dump a string_list to stdout, useful mainly for debugging purposes. It
	can take an optional header argument and it writes out the
	string-pointer pairs of the string_list, each one in its own line.
 
`string_list_clear`::
 
	Free a string_list. The `string` pointer of the items will be freed in
	case the `strdup_strings` member of the string_list is set. The second
	parameter controls if the `util` pointer of the items should be freed
	or not.
 
* Functions for sorted lists only
 
`string_list_has_string`::
 
	Determine if the string_list has a given string or not.
 
`string_list_insert`::
 
	Insert a new element to the string_list. The returned pointer can be
	handy if you want to write something to the `util` pointer of the
	string_list_item containing the just added string.
+
Since this function uses xrealloc() (which die()s if it fails) if the
list needs to grow, it is safe not to check the pointer. I.e. you may
write `string_list_insert(...)->util = ...;`.
 
`string_list_lookup`::
 
	Look up a given string in the string_list, returning the containing
	string_list_item. If the string is not found, NULL is returned.
 
* Functions for unsorted lists only
 
`string_list_append`::
 
	Append a new string to the end of the string_list.
 
`sort_string_list`::
 
	Make an unsorted list sorted.
 
`unsorted_string_list_has_string`::
 
	It's like `string_list_has_string()` but for unsorted lists.
+
This function needs to look through all items, as opposed to its
counterpart for sorted lists, which performs a binary search.
 
Data structures
---------------
 
* `struct string_list_item`
 
Represents an item of the list. The `string` member is a pointer to the
string, and you may use the `util` member for any purpose, if you want.
 
* `struct string_list`
 
Represents the list itself.
 
. The array of items are available via the `items` member.
. The `nr` member contains the number of items stored in the list.
. The `alloc` member is used to avoid reallocating at every insertion.
  You should not tamper with it.
. Setting the `strdup_strings` member to 1 will strdup() the strings
  before adding them, see above.